OKFlyFisher44

I agree with BFTMASTER, I understand if you're trying to break into the sport for cheap. But if you really think you're going to stick with it (which most do, its an addictive sport), spend the money and buy one of the "entry-level" rods from the high-end rod makers (Sage, Scott, Winston) Sage has their Launch rods, Scott has their A3 rods, and Winston has their Accent rods. The Scott A3 rods start at $295 and the Accent rods are at $200, i think? I've fished with the Scott and the Winston rods...they're great rods. Of the half-dozen rods I own, my personal favorite is my 8ft 4wt Scott that I got several years ago for just over $200. It was the entry rod Scott made before the A series rods. I love it. Heck, buy a TFO fly rod. Their entry level rods that go out at $110 at Bass Pro are great. I have one of their 7wts and it casts like a dream.

I agree with ya Zach on the various patterns. I always figured on that...along with constantly changing colors. I'm wondering if your choice of location to fish the river changes at night? I seem to notice more people standing in the middle of the river fishing, which makes sense as you could cover a lot of different water by either stripping the fly or letting it swing in the current. I don't know, I was kind of frustrated sunday night after the other guys said they were really into fish and we just struggled! I need to sit down and tie up some more streamers in largers sizes. Only have a few things much bigger than a size 10, most of my buggers and mohair leeches are all in the sizes 12 and 14. I imagine those sizes are big enough but in my very short career night fishing at Taney (4 nights, lol)...I've gotten more consistent bites on larger flies which obviously the fish can detect them better in the water at night. Saturday night, I had a ton of bites on an egg-sucking leech. Who knows, maybe I'm just over-thinking this whole gig and just need to shut up n' fish!

We fished with 1 unit this weekend and it was still wade-able but really just on the edges...it gets deep really quick. But there's a lot of fish still to be caught around the edges. And you can always fish at the outlets with the masses....if you can squeeze in!

Right on dude!

A little fish porn for you guys...

6/27 Left tulsa a little after 4:00 after work. After a quick stop at Bass Pro in springfield to get my nephew a trout stamp, we got to Branson around 9:00 to check into our cabin. We got up to the dam right at 10 p.m. and the parking lot was pretty full with more cars pulling in. Lots of people trying to beat the heat. We started just above outlet #2 with my nephew chunking a olive bugger and I was throwing a purple egg-sucking leech. I had several strikes on the leech but couldn't hook up. I finally hooked into a fish that almost put me into my backing even on my 7wt TFO, just a long hard run! I got him to hand and he was a FAT 18" rainbow. Shaped like a football and solid. Awesome fish. Only brought a couple more fish to hand and just a few more missed strikes. We moved down to just below Rebar and my 13 y/o nephew caught a couple nice rainbows to finally get the monkey off his back. He didn't believe me that the strikes he'd be getting would be fierce...almost yanked the rod outta his hand on the 2nd fish. We packed up about 1:00 a.m. as the bite slowed down. I'm still trying to figure out this night fishing, can't quite put my finger on a consistant pattern to fish at night. 6/28 Got up to the dam and was on the water by 7:00 am, lots of people on the water already. I squeezed my nephew into the tail-end of Rebar just above the big root-ball and I fished the run just below it. Again, it was the san juan worm with a scud dropper that worked well for me but I did have to keep switching colors on the san juan and the scud. Caught a bunch of 14-16 inch rainbows out of that hole, all of them strong, healthy, and FAT! Hooked up with another football pig of rainbow and lost him at the net! Moved back upstream to help my nephew who was struggling a bit with missing fish. He's doing pretty well but is just slow on his hook sets when he gets a strike or he doesn't recognize the "softer" strikes where the indicator just stops or twitches a bit. He was getting frustrated so we packed up for lunch. Came back around 5 and just pulled on our waders when they blew the horn. It was just 1 generator so we fished the high water for a bit along the edges between outlet #1 and #2. Brought a few fish to hand before we loaded up to go back and eat dinner. Got back up to the dam around 10:30 and went up to the cable and fished our way downstream. The water was still falling but was almost bottomed out. It was SLOOOOWWWW. Don't know what the deal was. We switched between lots of flies. We stripped fast, slow, and even just let them swing in the current. I think I got 5 strikes the whole night and missed all of them. My poor nephew didn't even get a bite. We were tired so we headed out just before 1 am to get some much needed sleep. I talked to the only 2 other fisherman out that night as they left when we did. They caught lots of fish on a olive bugger, just stripping it slow. I know they caught several as I seen them turning their headlamps on to net fish. They were wading out in the middle of the river between outlet #1 and #2. Don't know what the deal was. 6/29 Got up to the dam and on the water around 7:30 am. I decided to play guide today and help my nephew get on some fish. I took him down to Rebar and we got the prime spot just below the 2nd pile of rebar sticking up. The bottom drops off there and is always loaded with fish. Its no secret as there's always someone fishing there. Anyways, I never made a cast all morning but Colton got into some fish! He ended the morning with 18 in about 3 hours...proud of the lil' fella. The first hour I had to really help him on detecting strikes but the last 7 fish he got all on his own. Even got him dialed in on his mending, FINALLY! He hooked a TOAD of a rainbow just below rebar but it made a huge run soon as he set the hook and the tippet broke....he was bummed. Anyways...fishing was really good during the day. We had a great time. I'm still stumped on what to think on the night fishing thing though. Its back to the drawing board once again...

Heading to Taneycomo or I'd be out there tomorrow evening! Good luck Gregg!

I'll be down saturday evening till monday. We plan on night fishing saturday and sunday nights along with sunday and monday morning. I'm bringing my 13 year old nephew along for his 1st trip to Taney and introduce him to night fishing, he's really excited. He's fished roaring river, norfork river, and dry run creek....always fished well so I'm thinking he'll do just fine. Look for us...we'll be in a black/silver Dodge Ram 2500 quad cab w/ Oklahoma plates if we're there. On the river, I'll be in a green/white Scott hat...can't miss me!

I agree...I didn't know they stocked browns in the illinois. Thats cool to know though. Give the fishery a little more diversity! I agree with you Martin, I've only fished the lower illinois for the first time this past sunday and I have to agree that its very under-rated. I was really impressed with the fishery...I mean, its not the white river or taneycomo by any means but it has some respectful fish and you can catch numbers of fish. And for only being an hour and a half from my front door, I'm not going to complain at all. Plus the diversity of fish you can chase with a fly rod is great. I know most guys seem to focus on trout but the drum and carp that are THICK in that river are a BLAST to catch on a 6-8wt fly rod. Not to mention the monster stripers that are cruising the river....those are some fun fish on the fly stick! I think if the wildlife department would put a slot-limit in place on one of the sections of the lower illinois...i think the fishery could really take off and maybe improve to a trophy trout status water. Or is there already something like this in place? Something similiar to what you find at Taneycomo in the trophy area....anything between 12 and 20 inches has to be release immediately. That would allow for some fish to grow. Only thing is I doubt that many fisherman would follow the rules. Martin...drop me a PM with your contact info and anytime I'm going to wet a line...I'll PM you on here, text, or call you. I try to fish as much as I can. I won't be around this weekend though...I'm heading to Taneycomo for the weekend with my nephew. I'm hooked on night fishing! Can't wait to do it again saturday night!!

Yeah, just tried to enhale the little rainbow. I was amazed! I would think you would slay some stripers with a sink tip line fishing a clouser or deceiver in those deep pools. They have to be in there...getting fat on little rainbow trout

Sorry everyone, had to remove the picture as it was just a tad bit over the edge for the forum. I hope I didn't offend anyone and if I did, I do apologize. It was very amusing though...

Found this picture on a blog...absolutely hilarious!

Got down to the lower illinois around 5 or so after work. I drove on up to the upper section by the dam since Phil (DaddyO) was up there fishing. I met up with him and we headed up river towards the dam. Lots of people on the river fishing, surprised by how many people trout fish down there, both fly and spin gear. Water was really low so there was only a few prime spots it seemed. I stopped and fished the little riffle where that feeder creek dumps in. Caught 2 rainbows really quick, 1 on a midge and another on a beadhead san juan worm along with having several strikes. The guy at the top of the riffle was picking them up left and right...lots of fish in that little hole. Phil and I walked on up to the deep hole by the powersite where the big boulders are. There were a ton of fish stacked up in that deep hole just on the other side of those big boulders. I stood on 1 of the boulders there and picked up just over a dozen from that spot to end the day with 15 rainbows. I was really impressed with the number of fish in the river and the size of the fish was pretty decent actually...lots of 13-15 inch fish along with the standard 10-12 inch silver bullets. The fish also put on a great fight too for the water temps....lots of jumps and runs. Fun fish! Fish of the day was the 18+ inch rainbow that Phil caught on one of his BobWhite patterns. It was a toad of a fish and was a pain to land. Solid fish though... Another cool thing...I hooked like a 12 inch rainbow and had like a 15lb striper trying to eat it when I was reeling it in! Freaked me out. It was a toad of a striper. Came up and mouthed the rainbow like 3 times. I got the itch to have my 7wt right then and my box of clousers! I will be back soon with my 7wt to chase carp and stripers if the rainbows don't cooperate!

Not a problem sir! It was fun playing guide for ya! Got a few scrapes on my knee from trying to reach for that toad of a rainbow! That was an excellent fish! I had a great time meeting you guys and fishing with ya...always fun to pick up new fishing buddies!

Tenkiller is scheduled for no generation all day tomorrow so I'm thinking about running out there tomorrow after work to chase some trout since my 7wt is still @ TFO getting warrantied and I can't go fish @ Zink. I don't get off work till 3 and then I gotta go by Bass Pro and get my trout stamp but if anyone wants to meet me out there for an evening of fishing...let me know! Phil? Zach? Cole M. ? Anyone interested?

LOL, this is true...this is true. Right of passage...I believe so sir! I've read 7 of his books...heh, read them over a course of like 4 months. I'd be just finishing up 1 book and the next one would come in the mail. It was pretty bad for a while...

Nothing wrong with Gierach...might be a touch of a purist but that's alright. Love his books... I snapped that when she was playing with one of her toy books. Just swapped them out and she started looking at it like she was reading. I still laugh so hard when I look at the picture...

You've got to be kidding me...are these people for real? There's no way in heck I'd ever pay that kind of money for a place like that. That's ridiculous. $120 A NIGHT FOR CAMPING! You could go fish somewhere in the Rockies for a couple of days with a guide and a place to stay cheaper than that I would bet! That's just...wow...I'm speechless... I mean...is this for real?!

I'm game myself...I would imagine it'd have tons of members!

I figured its never too early for her to start learning the philosophy side of our beloved sport...

Phil... Nothing wrong with carp, those are an absolute blast to chase with the fly stick. Kinda like a freshwater bone-fish...in a way. Lots of fun. Definitely taking my 7wt (when I get it back) when I go fish the lower illinois...i'll take carp all day long! Lol, yes there is another Cole. Its one of my buddies from OSU who lives in BA, he's _c_A_c_ on this forum actually, just doesn't post often. Gregg, you are right on the people. LOTS of people down there yesterday for a monday afternoon, I was surprised. I was hoping it'd be off a bit. Probably the warm weather and low water presenting lots of chances for people to fish...just like us. I'm thinking the next time I go fish Zink, I'm going to park at the soccer fields and fish further down river away from the people. See what happens! I won't be out at Zink for at least week, maybe longer, depending on how fast TFO gets my rod back to me. Freaking sucks too...I was excited about this low water! Should be primo today too...same generation schedule as yesterday I believe!

Cole and I got down to Zink around 4:00 or so. Water level was primo! And the water temp. was perfect for wet-wading as well (Phil, I risked it anyways, too darn hot!). We started at the big hole below the gates on east side of the river with the usual fly, the char/white clouser. TONS of gar and spoonbill cruising in this area. It was absolutely ridiculous to be honest. We hooked several gar but didn't bring any to hand. I hooked into a toad of a buffalo that put up a great fight. I made my way over to shore to land him and as I was making that last pull to slide him up on the bank....the fish made a run and I had my drag set just a touch too tight and POP! That's right...broke my 7wt TFO off at just above the ferrule. Couldn't believe it. Totally my fault as I tried to horse the fish way too much. So after probably 15-20 minutes fishing...I was done for the afternoon. Thank god for the lifetime warranty on TFO rods...its going in the mail tomorrow! I played guide with Cole and we walked around to the normally productive spots with no luck. Actually Cole foul-hooked a spoonbill that had to be at least 4ft long, it was awesome for the time he had it on. He broke it off as there was no chance in landing it... Don't know where the sand-bass or stripers are. Either they're not there or the water is too dirty...or something! Not really sure what to think... Anyone have any thoughts?

I completely agree with you there as well. I love my Chotas, they're ridiculously comfortable! I'll never buy another pair of wading boots, ever.

I agree with Zach, I think you might pay a little more for the name-brand stuff (Simms, Patagonia, Orvis, etc) but its definitely worth it in the long run I believe. I've got a pair of Orvis Silver Labels that I've had for going on 3 years and absolutely love them. They've taken a pretty good beating and no leaks so far. I will say this about the retail brands (Bass Pro/Cabelas), I firmly believe that the Cabelas brand gear is far superior to all the Bass Pro brand gear...by far. I don't think you could go wrong with any of the waders Cabelas has to offer. I have a pair of their 5mm neoprene bootfoot waders that I use to duck hunt with and absolutely love them. Just like the old saying goes..."You get what you paid for!"

I have 2 FishPond packs...a small one that I keep my warmwater streamers/poppers in and then the larger one has all my trout gear in it. I love them both. Couldn't imagine fishing without them now...don't know why I ever fished with a vest to be honest. The larger pack is the FishPond WaterDance guide pack....it holds all my gear in the front 2 pockets while leaving the largest pocket free to put my phone, camera, wallet, fishing licence, snacks, chewing tobacco, etc etc etc in its own place which is really nice. Anything that I worry about getting wet I just put inside a small dry bag and stick in that pocket. I can also carry a couple bottles of water with me. I just have my snips on a clip-on zinger while keeping my hemostats crimped onto one of the accessory loops out of the way. It all has its place and doesn't hang each other up. I do occasionally hang my fly line on my hemostats but thats when I forget to push the pack around behind my back. I had the same issue with finding a place to put my net. The waterdance pack has an accessory loop that I was hanging my net from but it would drag in the water and get all crossed up with my feet or flyline when I needed it. So now I just stick it through the belt between my back and the pack at the small of my back. Fits there just fine and doesn't bother me one bit.